I am a printmaker/painter. Recently I used acrylic paint on a thin canvas to make a print, image area 9″ x 12″. The canvas was then stretched on stretcher bars. I then used acrylic as an Isolation coat and added Golden MSA spray varnish on the image.
On the back, on unsealed canvas, I glued on a file-folder-weight piece to give information about the picture. I used Golden Soft Gel to glue it on, spreading the gel only on the tagboard and dry canvas. Then I added weights over the whole back within the stretcher bars until the glue process was dry. Unfortunately the front of the canvas now has a very slight but noticeable raised embossed ridge around the area of the tagboard on the back.
I tried to flatten this by placing on a glass sheet the canvas face down on a plastic-covered, slightly thick piece of foam a bit smaller than the square. Then I spread gel on the back of the canvas around the tagboard area, then added lots of weight on the stretcher bar perimeter. When dry there was no noticeable change to the embossing.
The Golden Paints technician to whom I talked suggested this forum might have a suggestion on how to overcome that embossing, since it sometimes happens with mending ripped items.
I have access to full sized printing presses at our university art department, if that might be an option with brute force.
Does anyone have a hlepful suggestion? Thank you.
PS – This item can be seen at www.janeevans.ca under the “Monotypes & Paintings” tab, and its name is “Cliffside Path at Sunset.” It already has some textures of paint, which I would like to preserve, but the regular edges of the embossing need to be removed if possible. JAE
Hello,
It’s unfortunate, that you didn’t see the Just Paint article on patches before gluing on the label ( https://justpaint.org/why-we-shouldnt-patch-it-up-how-labels-and-patches-on-canvas-tears-distort-paintings/). In all likelihood, the planar deformation won’t let itself be flattened by force as long as the paper is still adhered to the back. We would recommend trying to remove it carefully by placing a damp cloth on the label and rubbing the soaked paper off. Once the bulk of the paper is removed you can decide whether it’s worthwhile taking the risk to also remove some of the acrylic gel. For this you could use acetone or a blend of acetone and water, as the acetone evaporated rapidly. Once the acrylic gel is softened by the solvent you can use a knife to carefully remove some of the swollen gel. In case you have another print on the same or similar canvas, we recommend reproducing the problem and practicing the removal on a test piece first. There’s a high risk of solvent bleeding into the paint layer and creating a changed surface appearance to the rest of the print. Possibly the colors will look blanched.
We hope this is helpful, and we would be happy to hear how it worked out for you.
Kind regards,
Mirjam Auf der Mauer
Materials and Application Specialist Golden Artist Colors Inc.
Once you have remove the paper and bulk of the gel, you can then place damp blotting paper (or old newspaper- just make sure the ink isn’t staining) on the entire reverse of the painting and flatten with weight. You might have to cut a piece of wood into the right size to apply pressure evenly over the whole canvas. When placing the print face down for this procedure, you can put a piece of felt, foam or fabric underneath to protect the texture of the paint layer a little. Just make sure that the material isn’t textured to avoid texture being transferred into print and paint layers.
